Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) plan to ignore the will of the people by not bringing offshore oil drilling to a vote in Congress. They are trying to "run out the clock" and are only a few days from doing so, since Congress goes on summer recess after this friday. Reid and Pelosi know offshore drilling would be approved if it was voted upon, because almost all Republicans are in favor of it, and enough Democrats have been persuaded by the high price of gasoline to change their minds about it. I urge you to help pressure Congress into voting on this issue. High gas prices are damaging our economy, and are particularly hard on those who can least afford it. There is NO reason not to vote in favor of offshore drilling. If you think things are bad now, wait five years until gasoline is $6-8 per gallon if we do nothing. Ask them to open up ANWR for drilling as well while you're at it. Drilling for oil is not the entire solution to our future energy problems, but it is a big part of the solution until we transition away from oil to alternative energy sources, which is a long ways off.

Whenever I hear Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) speak, it reinforces for me why Congress is so dysfunctional. It also reinforces the need for limited government, because Harry Reid might look like a milquetoast, but he has power, he's a hyper-partisan fighter, and he's woefully misguided. That makes him dangerous. If you can watch this video, where Harry tries to make the absurd claim that income taxes in America are VOLUNTARY (lol), and not come away thinking he's a clueless loon who shouldn't be within shouting distance of power, then you belong over at the DailyKos blog with the other moonbats rather than here. The only thing less voluntary than taxes is death.

On yesterday's stop of Obamapalooza 2008, The World Tour, 200,000 Germans showed up for Obama's speech in Berlin. That is a mighty impressive turnout for my old country relatives from the Fatherland. Then again, we Germanic types have always had an affinity for charismatic men with a flair for public speaking. We get all worked up, and it doesn't always turn out well. Ask the Jews. We are well served to pay attention to a political candidate's substance, instead of focusing only on the style and glitz. So, it was kind of weird for me to watch Barack Obama speaking at the Siegessaule monument (Adolph's favored Nazi winged victory column) yesterday, not that Obama said anything wrong. He didn't. I'm not trying to equate Obama with Hitler either. That would be very unfair. Hitler HAD an economic plan.

I realize there is a good deal of spin involved in politics, but it's something else altogether when a story is made up out of whole cloth. The common term for it is 'lying', and it's incredible how often politicians get away with it. The most recent example I've witnessed of outright lying (and with a straight face too) was done by Obama supporter and possible Vice Presidential candidate Senator Evan Bayh on the Fox News Sunday program. Bayh and fellow possible Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joe Lieberman, an Independent/Democrat and McCain supporter, were discussing the Iraq war with moderator Chris Wallace. At issue was the 16-month Iraq withdrawal timeline proposed by Barack Obama and approved (until it was un-approved) by Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. First, here's Lieberman's statement:

LIEBERMAN: "Look, the fact is that if Barack Obama's policy on Iraq had been implemented, Barack Obama couldn't go to Iraq today. It wouldn't be safe. Barack Obama and John McCain saw the same difficulty in Iraq. John McCain had the guts to argue against public opinion, to put his whole campaign on the line, because, as he says, he'd rather lose an election than lose in a war that he thinks is this important to the United States. The reason I say Barack — if Barack Obama's policy couldn't — had been implemented — if Barack Obama's policy in Iraq had been implemented, he couldn't be in Iraq today is because he was prepared to accept retreat and defeat. And that would mean today Al Qaeda would be in charge of parts of Iraq. Iranian-backed extremists would be in charge of other parts of Iraq. There'd be civil war and maybe even genocide. And the fact is that we are winning in Iraq today. And you know, you can't choose, as Senator Obama seems to think, to lose in Iraq so you can win in Afghanistan. The reality is if we lost in Iraq, which Obama was prepared to do, we would go to Afghanistan as losers. Instead, Al Qaeda has its tail tucked between its legs..."

The high price of gasoline is hurting America. It is hurting the poorest among us the most. We import oil from countries that are NOT friendly towards us, such as Middle Eastern countries and Venezuela. We import oil from countries with unstable governments, such as Middle Eastern countries and Nigeria. Our entire economy hinges on those countries, therefore it's hardly surprising that we are very interested in the affairs of those foreign states, because the well-being of our own country depends on them. There is a direct correlation between what happens in the Middle East and the food you are placing into your mouth, the car you are driving to your job, and even whether you have a job or not. Oil is a matter of national security. That is why becoming energy independent is one of the most important jobs facing the United States today. Until we are energy independent, we don't control our own destiny, not to mention the fact that we are sending large chunks of our wealth overseas, strengthening some of those very countries who dislike us.

The estimated federal revenue for 2008 is $2.9 trillion. Of this amount, $1.788 trillion goes to mandatory spending (Social Security, Medicare. Medicaid, Welfare, Other entitlement programs, Interest on the Debt). Subtracting out the interest on the federal debt leaves us with an annual entitlement program budget of approximately $1.5 trillion.

One of the things that irks me most about the Bush Jr. era is how an allegedly Compassionate Conservative president, along with an allegedly Conservative Republican majority Congress, increased federal spending by over 30% and ran up unprecedented federal deficits, adding over $4 trillion to the federal debt. For the life of me, I can't find the "conservative" in such alleged Conservatives. I'm sure I heard something about Republicans being for low taxes and limited government. I'm certain I read that somewhere. Perhaps I was mistaken. Our federal debt comes to roughly $32,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. The interest alone on the federal debt is over $400 billion every year. What's even worse is, if you add in all the unfunded entitlement liabilities for which the government has us on the hook, the REAL deficit is about $2.5 trillion each year. That's what we commit to as opposed to what we have paid for in future Medicare/Social Security and other entitlement programs. Those monies are not included in the federal budget. If that sounds like a lot of money to you, well, it should. What's even worse than that is, we are transferring wealth out of the United States to foreign countries at an astounding rate, never before seen in the history of our country. When we import nearly 70% of our oil from foreign sources, that's a nice fat wad of American wealth that is waving bye bye to America. China owns a sizeable portion of our debt as well. We are selling our country piece by piece to the highest bidder, living way beyond our means, outsourcing our jobs and industries, and then we wonder why our economy is stagnating.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has been virtually defeated. 15 of 18 surge benchmarks have been met. Violence has dropped dramatically, to it's lowest level in 4 years. The insurgency is being quelled as crackdowns against both Sunni and Shia insurgents have been carried out. The Iraqi people are rejecting violence. Iraqi troops are taking mission leads now, with US forces providing backup roles. Iraqis already run 9 of 18 Iraq provinces. The US is beginning to draw it's troop levels down. There will be more troop reductions this month. Some troops will be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Above is a photo of Flipper, who somehow seemed appropriate for this post. Hi Flipper !

It has recently been brought to my attention that there is another fellow running for president, one whose name is NOT Barack Obama. Has anyone else heard about this ? I heard it mentioned on FoxNews the other day, in between the Obama stories and Obama speeches. His name is John McCain, and he's a Republican, in the mold of Democrat turned Independent, Joe Lieberman. I hear this McCain guy might even have purchased Alan Greenspan's book to learn about the economy, so you know he's a serious candidate. Obama bought Karl Marx's book to learn about the economy. That reminds me, don't forget to buy your tickets for Obamapalooza ! They're selling out fast ! I thought it might be a good idea to check McCain's record, since he could become president if Obama decides to move to Tibet and become a monk prior to november 4th, 2008.

Barack Obama's flip-flops are coming so fast and furious these days that I think we should rename the Obama campaign Shock And Awe. It's shocking how easily Obama abandons a previously held position, and we should all be in awe of the fact that he gets away with it. Now, I'm just spitballing here, but wouldn't it be nice if we had some kind of group that would keep track of the issues and could question Obama on his endless contradictions before we make him the leader of the free world ? That would be very helpful and informative for the American voting public. We could call that group, say, the media.

Barack Obama gave a speech on patriotism yesterday. I pretty much agreed with every word uttered by Mr. Obama in that speech. It's worth the read. Even though it was a self-serving and calculated speech, as are all of his (he IS a politician, after all), the principles he stated were sound, and quite patriotic. Obama said he would not question anybody's patriotism in this presidential campaign, and he will not sit idly by while anyone questions his. Clever bugger, that Obama, since it is virtually impossible for any sane person to question the patriotism of John McCain, while questions of Obama's associations with anti-american sentiment are rife (Rev. Wright, Father Pfleger, William Ayers, Mrs. Obama, flag pins, and all that). Obama can't win a patriotism contest with John McCain (few could), so he's trying to take that issue off the table.